Pickpockets, Beggars and Ratcatchers: Life in the Victorian Underworld

by Kellow Chesney

Book Overview

Hardback Edition with Dust Cover. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568525753
• ISBN13: 9781568525754
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Konecky & Konecky
• Length: 398 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating account of a rarely-studied area of history

Most Americans have never seen a slum, and have trouble imagining what one might look like... let alone its inhabitants... let alone what creatures might prowl a slum of the past. I picked this book up from a bargain table at a book store and was so glad I did - I was unable to put this book down! It is a highly detailed and interesting study of the urban and often criminal underclass in Victorian England. Vivid descriptions of the roles and culture of different varieties of urban poor people bring their plight and their fate to life in a very interesting way. The workhouses and poor laws that drove the rural poor from place to place and finally into urban areas helped to establish a slum community that featured unimaginable filth and overcrowding, but which also led to the development of a surprisingly complex social structure. Chesney explores the evolution, heirarchy and even the slang terms used by those members of the urban underclass - both those engaged in legitimate activities as well as criminals. In this book, you will meet mudlarks, guttersnipes, night-soil colelctors, sweepers, climbing-boys and many others. The exquisite detail of this book combined with the readability of the text make for a fascinating tome of real life on the streets. The filth and oppressive poverty of the world described in this book is a million miles away from the experience of most of us. Living in the bright, clean, sanitary world of today(in which most children go to school rather than to work)it is hard to imagine a world as oppressively filthy and dismal as that which hosted such personalities as the pickpocket, beggar and ratcatcher. I would recommend this book to fans of Charles Dickens or other contemporary writers who touch upon the plight of the urban poor. I also found it an interesting addition to my study of Australian History. If you have an inkling to further explore the types of community such as those that served as settings for "Sweeney Todd" and "Les Miserables," this book will not disappoint. I would further recommend this book to anyone teaching a class about economic history, urban history or social history, or anyone who is just interested in "how the other half live[d]." The urban poor through history is not a frequently-studied topic, for reasons that remain unknown. Certainly NOT because the topic is boring, as this author clearly shows.